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Making Scents: The Scientific Art of Creating Perfume with Margaux Hofstedt

Making Scents: The Scientific Art of Creating Perfume with Margaux Hofstedt


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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

One of France’s most remarkable perfumers, Edmond Roudnitska, once said: “To create new arrangements, new olfactory forms, it is enough that you think in odors as a painter thinks in colors and a musician in sounds."
Join us for the second installment of this three-part series, where we study the scientific minds at play within the industry and learn about how perfumes are manufactured today. Led by an industry insider, this seminar will unveil the scientific secrets of perfume-making:
  • A fragrance's beautiful (and sometimes rather unexpected) ingredients list
  • How they are produced en-masse in factories
  • The “nose testing” that happens while each composition is developed
  • Learning how to balance top notes, middle notes, and base notes
  • The significance of Olfactive Families and Olfactive Pyramids
This conversation is part of a three-part series. Each seminar can be joined independently and in any order.

The daughter of a French perfumer from the city of Grasse, the world's capital of fragrances, Professor Margaux Hofstedt forever associates scents with childhood memories: of her dad's scented fingers; of the fields of roses, jasmine, and tuberose surrounding her family home; of mysterious smells, like sandalwood, and patchouli, brought back from exotic countries. After graduating from the prestigious Higher Institute of Fragrances and Flavors ISIPCA in Versailles, an institution founded by renowned perfumer Jean-Jacques Guerlain, she dedicated her professional life to teaching and lecturing, sharing her passion with various audiences worldwide. She also created perfume-making workshops not only at The House of Fragonard but also at the European University of Flavors and Fragrances in Provence, opening the doors of a sensory journey for anyone interested in understanding the creation process. In addition, she is professor of Food Studies at the Institute for American Universities and the American College of the Mediterranean in Aix-en-Provence, France. Prof Hofstedt is bilingual in French and in English.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 3 reviews
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Anonymous (Quezon City, PH)
Excellent look at perfume from source to scent

This was a wonderful journey with Professor Hofstedt on the raw materials of perfume and how they are processed, and on how perfumes are "composed" from these different "notes" into an olfactory "symphony."

M
Maria Robinson (San Francisco, US)
Fascinating look into the science of scent and perfume

Fabulous slides and research. A great mix of science, craft, and culture. The development and production of perfume from its origins.

M
Mary Juneau-Norcross (Somerville, US)
The Secret of Scents

A most interesting presentation! Who knew it took longer for the "nose" of the perfumer to develop then to get a medical degree? The methods of procuring the scents we use was enlightening.

Customer Reviews

Based on 3 reviews
100%
(3)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
A
Anonymous (Quezon City, PH)
Excellent look at perfume from source to scent

This was a wonderful journey with Professor Hofstedt on the raw materials of perfume and how they are processed, and on how perfumes are "composed" from these different "notes" into an olfactory "symphony."

M
Maria Robinson (San Francisco, US)
Fascinating look into the science of scent and perfume

Fabulous slides and research. A great mix of science, craft, and culture. The development and production of perfume from its origins.

M
Mary Juneau-Norcross (Somerville, US)
The Secret of Scents

A most interesting presentation! Who knew it took longer for the "nose" of the perfumer to develop then to get a medical degree? The methods of procuring the scents we use was enlightening.